The daily routine at WAVES is full of joy and labour, big and small. The morning coffee, the cold showers, surf lessons, digging holes and dawn patrols. It is a privilege to have these occurrences often enough to be called ‘routine’, and it is a great pleasure, when every now and again we see these everyday efforts culminate into an event bigger than the routine that took us there.
Last Friday night we saw a great example of this kind of culmination in The Lobitos Skate Competition. I was working on some video editing in the Surf Shop most of the week and can take no credit for the endless preparation that went into the competition. Two or three times each day a group of exhausted volunteers would pop in for a break, collapsing on the sofas and wiping the sweat from their brows whilst discussing shovelling techniques or the thickness of the wood on the new ramp.
“How’s it going up there?” I would ask, always to receive the same weary reply: “fine” or “we’re getting there”. From such unenthusiastic replies I assumed things weren’t going too well and helpfully buried myself back into the computer screen. I was mistaken.
Setting foot back on the WAVES site after two weeks away was a sight to behold. Where once stood a ramshackle stack of wood vaguely resembling some form of ramp being used to stack wood scraps and recycling now stood a fully restored and freshly varnished quarter-pipe. The place was transformed from a forgotten corner of land to the centre of attention.
Two hours before the competition started, the place was buzzing with skaters and spectators alike. If you want to surf in Lobitos then overcrowded waves, snaking, dropping in and general disrespect in the water is all par-for-the course. However, it was refreshing to see fifteen or so skaters, all of different ages, abilities and nationalities squeeze onto this humble little ramp and use it together so successfully.
Down went the sun, on came the floodlights, the cameras, the barbeque and the projector screening classic 70’s surf films. The site filled up and as the under-sixteen’s kicked off the first heat the familiar sounds of collective whooping, cheering (and occasionally groaning) filled the night air. As a life-long rollerblader I’ve competed in my fair share of skate comps. You can always tell that it’s going to be a good one when the crowd applauds according to the ability of the contestants rather than according to the tricks they’re doing. Often the younger or less skilled kids will leave their heat to scattered applause from a distracted crowd. Not this time. The respectful excitement on the ramp had rubbed off on the crowd and with the barbeque fired up with burgers all the ingredients for a good night were in place.
Against this backdrop the heats flew by. It was interesting to see the variety of skaters here, not just in skill but in style too. Lobitos being a world-class surf spot and skateboarding being historically linked to surfing, you could tell the local surfers with their fluid, relaxed style from the more aggressive approach of the city folk.
Trick of the night went to Nero with a solid kickflip to rock fakie, only beaten by Peter who took first place with a flawless one minute run starting off with a caveman drop straight up to a backside disaster. Prizes were awarded to the winners, new decks, wheels, trucks and t-shirts, some of which were shared amongst the crowd in the true spirit of the night.
The day to day routines at WAVES are a pleasure. But they can also be frustrating. That drill you really need is broken from the relentless desert dust. You spend an hour cleaning it out only to discover there’s a power-cut that lasts eleven hours. When finally it comes back on you discover you need a new part that can only be bought in Piura, a three hour drive away. There is no water for four days. In a house of fifteen that gets rougher than I would imagine very quickly. Most days you battle with these everyday frustrations and often your well-intentioned to-do list is discarded before noon. When it all finally comes together though, when you look around and suddenly notice how much fun everyone is having – children happily squashing fifteen marshmallows onto a single stick to roast over the fire, a crowd of forty all whooping in unison for the under-sixteen’s winners – it’s all the better for having made it past those frustrations.
Photos Provided by Nicky and Henry Espinoza.
